The Advantage-Makers Book

How Exceptional Leaders Win by Creating Opportunities Others Don’t

Some leaders consistently see possibilities others miss. They learn more, learn faster, and transform their insights into breakaway strategies. They are more effective collaborators, more powerful influencers, better at handling adversity, and dramatically more successful at execution.

They are the Advantage-Makers.

Their winning skills are not innate: they are entirely teachable and learnable. Steven Feinberg has been teaching these skills to executives for more than twenty years: leaders who’ve gone on to transform their organizations.

About the Book

Overview

In this book, Feinberg helps you master every skill Advantage-Makers need. He doesn’t just exhort you to “think different”: he shows you how. You’ll learn how to find the “commanding vantage point” in your situation, no matter how complex or dynamic…and use your high ground to spot and maximize every opportunity.

They are the Advantage-Makers. And you can be one, too.

Straight from renowned Advantage-Maker consultant Steven Feinberg, this relentlessly practical, hands-on book will show you how. It’s packed with new ideas, techniques, exercises, and checklists that will transform the way you view every business challenge…so you can find the winning solutions that are hidden in plain sight!

What You Will Learn

Shift the odds in your favor

Change focus to discover your next breakthrough solution

Drive superior outcomes despite limited resources

Engage your constraints, and put them to work for you

Grab hold of your hidden “levers of opportunity”

Learn how to leverage timing, interaction, perception, and structure

Use dissatisfaction and skepticism constructively

Pinpoint the real difficulties then transform them into opportunities

Avoid the “Laws of Defeat”

Discover the surprising mistakes that keep leaders from succeeding

Great leaders can see opportunities where others see only problems…influence outcomes where others are hopelessly stuck…transform their obstacles into powerful advantages. They’ve learned to use levers of power that other executives don’t even know exist.

What Readers are Saying

“I count myself hard to impress. But I was highly impressed after reading several sections of The Advantage-Makers. The material offers a wealth of excellent information and advice, allowing readers to move from research-based evidence to decidedly practical action steps.”

Robert Cialdini, PhDAuthor of Influence: Science and Practice, 2 million sold; Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing

WARNING! Reading Steven Feinberg’s The Advantage-Makers will cause habitually inspired decision making. It reveals the accomplishments of extraordinary people who could see what others could not. Feinberg helps us demystify the secrets of inspirational decision making and makes us all realize we can be inspiring, too.

MARV TSEUChairman of the Board, Plantronics

The Advantage-Makers not only helps you avoid errors, it helps you see what is possible. This translates into moving the organization forward. You will be better by applying the know-how in this book.

SHELLY BEGUNVP, HR Xilinx

Whether you as a manager are trying to build a high-performing team of first-level managers or senior executives, you will find Dr. Feinberg’s tools and techniques intuitive and effective. The Advantage-Makers will get you started in the right direction.

JIM HAARCIO, BEA Systems

The Advantage-Makers will captivate your mental and intuitive processes. You will experience many ‘ahas’ and be elated to find within its pages real life help that can put you on the leading edge of organizational and personal thinking. You will receive an arsenal of profound leadership thoughts and an array of actionable ideas that you will continually refer to throughout your life.

BILL FIELDSPresident, Packaging Results, Inc.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part One: Strategic Shifting: How to See What Others Miss

Chapter 1

How to Shift the Odds in Your Favor in the Best of Times and the Worst of Times

Chapter 2

Breaking the Secret Code of the Great Advantage-Makers

Chapter 3

Wise or Otherwise: Are You Following Any of the Hidden Laws of Defeat?

Chapter 4

Shifting to a Commanding (Ad)Vantage Point

Part Two: The Advantage Points: The Levers of Advantage-Making

Chapter 5

Adaptive Stretching: It’s Not the BestWho Wins[md]It’s Who’s the Most Adaptive

Chapter 6

The Game Changer: If You Are in a Hole, Stop Digging and Change the Game

Chapter 7

Move or Lose: Manage Momentum to Advance Your Organization

Chapter 8

Strategic Influence: How to Get People to Say Yes in the Right Way to the Right Things

Chapter 9

Influence Perception: Helping People See What They Need to See

Chapter 10

Being an Advantage-Maker: How to Play in a Different League

Can You Create Advantages?

In just 5 minutes, you will get a better understanding of your ability to create Advantages. Your results will give you new insight as to how you can begin to shift the odds in your favor.It’s FREE and easy too!